1. Technical Field
The invention relates to accessing and using information. More particularly, the invention relates to an interface for user/agent interaction.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Information management is no longer the enterprise administrator's exclusive domain. With the Internet and the increased use of intranets, each individual is becoming an information manager. In fact, individuals are more and more finding themselves awash in information. The point in an enterprise at which a user accesses and manipulates such information resides in a client process and is typically referred to as the graphical user interface. Traditional graphical user interfaces usually return the result of an action immediately in a direct manipulation situation, and tasks are generally handled in one-at-a-time fashion, where the user is directly involved in most of the steps.
FIG. 1 is a block schematic diagram of an information system that comprises a client 10 that includes an information access/management tool, such as a browser 12. A user interacts with the browser to access resources at, or in communications with, a server 14. The server typically provides client access to a wide area network, such as the Internet or an intranet.
One approach to managing information across the Internet/intranets is the use of an intelligent agent. An intelligent agent 16 provides a tool for organizing user requests for resources, for example by filtering email messages sent to the user or by remembering various user preferences.
One presently available tool that provides improved management of enterprise wide information resources is SuiteSpot, which is manufactured by Netscape Communications Corporation of Mountain View, Calif. SuiteSpot provides a suite of Internet/intranet servers that comprise various modules, such as LiveWire Pro, which is a site management and JavaScript development tool, as well as any combination of an Enterprise Server, Web server, Proxy Server, Mail Server, News Server and Catalog Server.
All of the SuiteSpot servers share the same browser-based administration interface and JavaScript support. SuiteSpot uses Internet protocols directly for messaging, for example, rather than requiring gateways that translate Internet mail into their proprietary protocols.
LiveWire Pro includes a visual Site Manager for administering a Web site, an Application Manager, and a Navigator Gold browser which adds HTML editing features to the Netscape Navigator browser. LiveWire Pro automatically tracks and fixes interdependent links and checks all the external links on a site.
The Site Manager allows a user to view a graphical hierarchical list of all the pages, graphics, and links on a Web site. The Site Manager also supports drag and drop HTML pages and graphics around the site.
The Enterprise Server also supports full-text searching and indexing and has an AutoCatalog feature that lets administrators automatically index and classify all the data on their sites. The Enterprise Server includes configurable logging capabilities that allow a user to specify exactly what information the user wants recorded about each connection and easily customize the format of the log files. From the Enterprise Server logs it is possible to generate reports automatically.
The Catalog Server allows users to manage all of their on-line resources in a single index similar to the Yahoo Index on the Web. The Catalog Server allows users to index and classify information across numerous servers.
The open server software components in the Netscape SuiteSpot product (plus LiveWire Pro) include:
Netscape Enterprise Server for publishing live on-line content, with Java support; PA1 Netscape Messaging Server, a high-performance messaging solution with interoperability with both native Internet and proprietary LAN-based mail systems; PA1 Netscape Collabra Server, an open and secure discussion server; PA1 Netscape Calendar Server, for calendaring and scheduling of people, groups and resources; PA1 Netscape Media Server, an audio broadcasting and publishing extension to the Enterprise server with support for Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP); PA1 Netscape Catalog Directory, an automated search and discovery server for creating and managing an on-line catalog of documents residing on corporate intranets and the Internet; PA1 Netscape Directory Server, for managing white pages information such as names, email addresses, phone numbers, and certificates--all built on the Internet Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) standard developed by the University of Michigan in conjunction with the Internet Engineering Task Force, and used to query recipient capabilities dynamically; PA1 Netscape Certificate Server, that enables organizations to issue, sign, and manage public-key certificates using Secure Sockets Layer encryption; and PA1 Netscape Proxy Server, for caching frequently accessed documents.
While SuiteSpot provides a complement of Internet/intranet resource management/access tools, all user accessible via a common graphic user interface, it would be advantageous to provide a user interface, for example for Internet and intranet agents, that embodies the technical potential of automation and delegation into a cohesive interface, e.g. an interface that is centered on autonomous processing of whole tasks rather than sequences of commands, as well as the autonomous detection of contexts which require the launch of a process, especially where such context is time-based.